Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 153, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1915 — “CHIGGERS” MAKE LIFE MISERABLE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

“CHIGGERS” MAKE LIFE MISERABLE

Enter the Large Sweat Fores of the Skin, and Then the Trouble Begins. HOW TO FIGHT THE PEST Flowers of Bulphur an Efficient Prevention—Spraying to Clear Land Area of the Mites—Whore the Pest Is Found —Its Life History.

(Prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture.)

Washington.—The very troublesome, yet exceedingly small red mite, commonly known as “chigger,” or “red bug,” makes life miserable in many portions of the South and portions of the Central states for those who thoughtlessly walk through grass or or other vegetation Infested with these eight-legged pests. Children with tender skins are particularly subject to attacks and the barefoot boy has long been familiar with the itching caused by the chiggers. The mites are not particular as to their place of attack, but choose first the exposed parts of the body. However, when walking through grass in which the mites live, the person is most liable to become infested from the knees down. The chiggers, which are red, and microscopic in size, enter the large sweat tubes or pores of the skin, and as their progress is necessarily slow, from a few minutes’ time to about twelve hours elapse before the chig* ger-infested area becomes painful or causes intense itching. As in the case of any itching irritations, there is danger that the sufferer in scratching with finger nails may open the skin and cause an infection from germs in Ms nails, but no such cases have been recorded so far as known. Where the Pest Is Found.

Chiggers are most abundant and troublesome in the tropics. They are, however, also generally distributed in tixe Gulf states up the Mississippi river to Missouri and Illinois, and through the Atlantic coast states to northern New Jersey. They are most bothersome between the months of June and October, according to the Farmers’ Bulletin by the United States department of agriculture, No. 671, “Harvest Mites, or Chiggers.” Some residents of the infested regions and particularly farm laborers seem to be proof against the toxic effects of harvest mites, and often go with impunity in places overrun with them. This is due primarily to two causes:

The skin has become toughened through exposure to the sun and weather, or is no longer irritated, due to becoming accustomed to the toxin secreted by the harvest mites. Inflamed spots, due to the presence of the mites under the first layer of skin, are often diagnosed as hives, nettle rash, urticaria or “weals,” and resemble closely the “bites” of fleas and of some mosquitoes. A characteristic of the harvest mite attack is that on the second or third day a minute water blister devel ps in the middle of the mite-infested area. After the subsiding of the inflammation and itching, which takes place after a few days, a small scale or scab frequently forms, leaving on some persons a scar which does not entirely disappear in extreme cases for weeks. Avoid Mite-Infested Areas. The mites attack the most exposed portions of the body first, bat do not seem to be particular in choosing a place of attack. They crawl into the stockings and penetrate the skin about the ankles, frequently below the knee. A period of 18 to 36 hours elapses, after the mites have crawled into the pores of the skin, before they become painful. Sometimes the person affiictted becomes almost frantic from the irritation, and lacerates the skin by too vigorous and frequent scratching. Only in rare instances, however, 1b the result of an attack of chiggers serious. In some localities where the harvest mite is found in great numbers, to walk among blackberry or other shrubbery, or come in contact with grasses or similar herbage along streams or pools on edges of marshes, or under trees near such places, is to invite an attack. It is obvious, therefore, that the best preventive is to avoid exposure. However, if a bath is taken in hot water or water containing salt or strong soap within a few hours after exposure, no ill effects will be experienced. After a longer exposure * bath is practically of no effect. Sulphur Is the best remedy for mites and is also the best preventive of attack. Since the mites usually become

attached to the person in walking through vegetation, it has been found, according to the bulletin, that sifting flowers of sulphur into the underclothes from- a little above the knee, downward and into the shoes and stockings, is effective. Napthalene has been successfully used in the same manner, and is considered a safeguard against several forms of man-infesting tropical insect pests.

If a person has been exposed to an attack of harvest mites, an applies tion to the affected parts of a moderately strong solution of ammonia is possibly the best counter-irritant. Bicarbonate of soda or common cooking soda, or saleratus may be substituted in a saturated solution. Similar alkaline solutions would probably also serve in counteracting the insect poison, which is acid. In case the suffering is severe, dilute tincture of iodine or collodion should be lightly applied. Eliminating the Mites. Where a large tract is to be freed of the pest, such as lawns, country grounds, pathways, roadsides, the method recommended by the bulletin is to keep the grass closely cut, the weeds eliminated and useless herbage mowed so as to expose the mites to the sun. In some cases It may be practical to spray the grass and other, plants after cutting with flowers of sulphur or a dilute spray of kerosene emulsion, in which sulphur has been mixed.

Grasses bordering on ponds frequented by cattle, wild blackberry bushes and similar plants, should becut down and destroyed in the vicinity of houses where people are liable to be infested by the mites by passing through them. Cattle, sheep and goats have often been used successfully in keeping down the grass and other vegetable growth which harbors chiggers.

On large estates chiggers may be effectively eliminated by the use of sulphur in dust blowers such as are i used for dusting crops with insecticide powder, or by one of the large sulphur dusters used in spraying orange trees or hops for red spider. These sprayers are capable of throwing a fan-shaped discharge about eight feet wide and effect an even and thorough distribution. The cost of application, allowing 60 pounds of sulphur to the acre, would be $1 to $1.60 per, acre. One man and a team will cover in a day 30 to 40 acres so that the cost of application is not great. The dußter costs from $66 to SBO.

Not a True Insect. Harvest mites are not true insects, but belong to the class of spiders, ticks and the like. The mature mite wanders about feeding on aphides, small caterpillars, and in the case of one species, on the eggs of grasshoppers or locusts. This species hibernates in the soil, or other sheltered locations, and in the spring deposits its eggs, there being only one generation produced in a year. The eggs are laid in the ground, sometimes as many as 400 in one place. They are usually brown and spherical. When the larva, which is microscopic, blood red, and shaped somewhat- like a common tick, hatches, it is circular or ovoid in outline, and each of its three pairs .of legs is tipped with two or three prominent claws. , After the larva become attached to its insect host it grows rapidly, and when full fed, seeks a convenient shelter to change its shape without molting. Within a few weeks it emerges a fullgrown chigger or mite of different shades of red, and with eight legs, instead of six, as found on the larva.

Mite Greatly Magnified.